Photo: NASA
In a manner that is less visible than its efforts of returning humans to the Moon, NASA is seriously practicing going to Mars. Sure, it's not yet at a point where it can reveal the actual details of a mission and the hardware required to get the job done, but it does practice the ins and outs of astronaut living on Mars.
We've talked several times before about something called HERA. That's short for Human Exploration Research Analog and represents a 650 square feet (60 square meters, about as large as an average apartment in Europe and elsewhere) habitat located at the Johnson Space Center that's used to simulate missions to other worlds.
How's that? Pretty simple, really. Volunteers are locked up inside the place for as much as 45 days and asked to go on about their lives as if they were alone on the Red Planet, millions of miles away from home and help.
HERA has been actively used since the spring of last year, and it has seen since several crews come and go. This year alone, three missions have been conducted there, with crews of four taking turns inside the habitat.
The final HERA mission of 2024 was just announced by the American space agency. It will kick off on November 1 and end on December 16, with the following volunteers making up the crew: Obaid Alsuwaidi (captain engineer for the United Arab Emirates' Ministry of Defense), Kristen Magas (an educator at the Tri-County Regional Vocational Technical High School in Franklin, Massachusetts), Tiffany Snyder (supervisor for the Cybersecurity Mission Integration Office at NASA), and Anderson Wilder (Florida Institute of Technology graduate student).
As said, the place these guys and gals will live in for the next month and a half is pretty austere. They'll have to go about their business inside a closed environment, completely isolated from their surroundings, and even while experiencing five-minute communications delays - far less than what a real crew of astronauts on Mars would, which is up to 20 minutes, one way.
Just like the crews before them, this one will have to conduct scientific research and operational tasks while in there. This includes Mars walks by means of virtual reality, no less than 18 human health studies, and engineering challenges.
Most importantly, the crew has also been tasked with rehearsing ways of generating food, including by growing vegetables and raising shrimp.
Just like during the previous runs, the main goal of this mission is to see how humans could adapt to such a stressful situation as a travel to Mars and an extended stay there. The crew's ability to withstand isolation, confinement, and remote conditions will be looked at in a bid to give us a better understanding of what a mission to Mars will actually require from us, both physically and mentally.
How's that? Pretty simple, really. Volunteers are locked up inside the place for as much as 45 days and asked to go on about their lives as if they were alone on the Red Planet, millions of miles away from home and help.
HERA has been actively used since the spring of last year, and it has seen since several crews come and go. This year alone, three missions have been conducted there, with crews of four taking turns inside the habitat.
The final HERA mission of 2024 was just announced by the American space agency. It will kick off on November 1 and end on December 16, with the following volunteers making up the crew: Obaid Alsuwaidi (captain engineer for the United Arab Emirates' Ministry of Defense), Kristen Magas (an educator at the Tri-County Regional Vocational Technical High School in Franklin, Massachusetts), Tiffany Snyder (supervisor for the Cybersecurity Mission Integration Office at NASA), and Anderson Wilder (Florida Institute of Technology graduate student).
As said, the place these guys and gals will live in for the next month and a half is pretty austere. They'll have to go about their business inside a closed environment, completely isolated from their surroundings, and even while experiencing five-minute communications delays - far less than what a real crew of astronauts on Mars would, which is up to 20 minutes, one way.
Just like the crews before them, this one will have to conduct scientific research and operational tasks while in there. This includes Mars walks by means of virtual reality, no less than 18 human health studies, and engineering challenges.
Most importantly, the crew has also been tasked with rehearsing ways of generating food, including by growing vegetables and raising shrimp.
Just like during the previous runs, the main goal of this mission is to see how humans could adapt to such a stressful situation as a travel to Mars and an extended stay there. The crew's ability to withstand isolation, confinement, and remote conditions will be looked at in a bid to give us a better understanding of what a mission to Mars will actually require from us, both physically and mentally.
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